Year: 1985
Language: English
Runtime: 114 min
Director: Brigitte Berman
Producer: Brigitte Berman
Writer: Brigitte Berman
Cinematographer: Jim Aquila, Mark Irwin
Editor: Brigitte Berman, Barry Backus
Sound: Gerry Jest, Jon Brodin
Music: Artie Shaw
: Brigitte Berman
Cast: Artie Shaw, Evelyn Keyes, Frederic Morton, Mack Pierce, Mel Torme, Buddy Rich, Helen Forrest, John Best, Lee Castle, John Wexley, Polly Haynes
Production Company: Bridge Film Productions

As early as his teenaged years, Artie Shaw (born Arthur Arshawsky) realized he had to hustle if he wanted to get ahead. A saxophone became his key to freedom and, eventually, fame. Shaw left school at fifteen; he learned to read music in less than a month and by nineteen had become one of New York City’s leading studio musicians. His success as a bandleader was slower to develop, due in part to his use of innovative orchestrations and, more specifically, his integration of distinguished black musicians such as Billie Holliday and Roy Elridge, which was cause for controversy in the late thirties. However, even today people recognize the classic Artie Shaw sound of his theme song “Nightmare” or his most famous number, “Begin the Beguine.”

An iconoclastic, energetic man, Shaw worked hard to acquire fame and wealth only to put them aside more than once in his career. Despite having walked away from success repeatedly throughout his life, Shaw has no regrets. As he puts it in the film, “I like where I am.”

Director Brigitte Berman – who was also responsible for the crowd-pleasing Bix (1981) – intercuts her interviews with the notoriously reclusive Shaw with rare archival footage of his various bands in action. The film includes interviews with such distinguished Shaw associates as Helen Forrest, Buddy Rich and Mel Tormé, and presents an emotional segment with the actor Evelyn Keyes, Shaw’s wife of fifteen years.

Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got won an Academy Award® for best feature documentary in 1986.